30 March 2014
Dear Phyllis,
Before I get into the body of my letter
today, let me comment, briefly, about my opinion of Malaysian Flight
360. I am convinced more than ever that I am right, that that bird is
not in the Indian Ocean. Luke wrote me asking, “Why are they so
insistent that they know what happened and where it is?” The
Malaysian government is terribly embarrassed at the poor way they
have handled this incident, and they are very anxious to get closer,
and put this behind them as soon as possible. Their whole argument is
based on data that they got from new technology that has never been
used before. At best this is an experiment, and there is no proof
that it is accurate. But they were able to put together data
indicating that the bird was on a southwest heading, and ran of of
fuel 1,100 miles west of Perth, Australia. I find that extremely
difficult to buy. I find it nearly impossible to believe that there
was anything wrong with that Boeing 777. This had to be entirely
engineered by the pilots. The heading change and the transponders
were turned off before the last voice transmission of, “All right,
goodnight”. There was nothing wrong when they made that
transmission, and they already were on a different course.
There has been some discussion about
cell phones and the fact that relative have called passengers and
their phones were ringing. Experts say this is no indication of
anything as the phone would appear to ring even if they were under
water. But I have yet to hear anyone raise the question on why there
were no calls from the cabin. To me the answer to that is clear. If
the altitude fluctuations are accurate, and someone tried to nurse
that aircraft to 45,000 feet, the only explanation I can see for that
is for hypoxia – to knock everyone out from lack of oxygen. Even
with oxygen masks on in the cabin, without pressure breathing,
everyone would be dead in ten minutes. To me the reason no one called
from the aircraft by satellite cell phone was that they were all
dead. The pilot didn't do that so he could fly for six hours to the
Indian Ocean and commit suicide.
This flight was very carefully planed,
meticulously executed, and I believe we will see it again in some
other country. But I may be wrong.
In reading Andrew' Murray's book on the
Blood of Christ I was greatly impressed by his chapter on altars.
Altars are so basic to worship that it could almost be said that
there is no worship of God or dealings with God without an altar.
From the day of Noah on, altars were central in mans dealing with
God. Before God spoke to Moses about building Him a Tabernacle in
which to live Moses first made an altar. Andrew Murray said, “You
can have worship of God even if you don't have a temple, but you
cannot worship God without an altar.” Of the seven items that
were in the OT Tabernacle the altar was easily the most important.
This was where all the sacrifices were made and the transactions with
God were done. And that is certainly so today.
As I have thought about this, I have
been bewildered that in today's worship of God, there is almost a
total absence of sacrifice. We are so enamored with the doctrine that
Jesus has paid everything, so now we enjoy a free-be in our worship
God. David said, “I will not offer my burnt offering unto the
Lord my God with that which cost me nothing.” (2 Sam. 24:24).
But we do. How can we say it is a sacrifice if it cost us nothing?
And how can we worship God at an altar if there is nothing on it?
Tragically, I believe the answer to that is expressed in one word –
delusional.
Several years ago the speaker at the
Keswick Conference in England had a terrific illustration. He told of
a bridge in Scotland that went over a river. It was a tradition that
as the train went over this bridge, it was good luck for passengers
to toss coins in the river. Like coins in a wishing fountain. But one
passenger rode that train everyday to work, and it would be terribly
expensive for him to toss out a coin everyday. Being a Scotsman, he
came up with a great solution. He took a coin, bored a hole in it,
and tied it to a string. Everyday when the passengers would open the
windows to toss out their coins, he would take out his coin from his
purse, and toss it out the window. Then he would real it back in. But
one day the string broke. The speaker went on to say, “You people
have been coming here year after year. Every year you come forward to
make your dedication to the Lord, and then you go home and real it
back in again. Praise God, for the day when the string brakes.”
It seems obvious that much of our
dedication to the Lord is delusional. We sing “All to Jesus I
surrender all to Him I freely give” but most people would die of
fright if that was true. What is the sacrifice they are laying on the
altar? What is the cost? It is a spiritual fact and reality that the
only entrance into the life of God is by the death of the flesh.
The Bible tells us that “we have boldness to enter into the holiest
by the Blood of Jesus; by a new and living way which He consecrated
for us, through the Veil, that is to say His flesh” (Heb.
10:19,20). For years I thought this was a free pass so we could stand
before the Lord; but I see now that is not a free pass, but He
has opened for us a WAY. If we are going to
come before the Lord we must come by that WAY. What is that WAY? It
is the same way that Jesus used – the death of His flesh. It is by
His death that Jesus entered into the presence of God. And this is
the way He has opened for us. It was by the rending of His flesh
that the Veil was rent in two. And we will not enter
before the Lord without a major rending of our flesh also.
But what do we mean by the death of our
flesh? Certainly this is not suicide. I believe John has given us a
hint when he told of of the three things that constitute the world.
He said all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes and the pride of life (1 Jn. 2:16). These three things
have been properly expressed as pleasure, possession,
and position. Or there is something we like to feel,
something we want to have, or something we want to be.
These are the tree steel cables that keeps untold millions of souls
ships tied to the dock of the world. It is disgusting that the
devil's most effective fishing line is sensual-ism. It seems obvious
that the vast majority of young people are held fast by sex, drugs,
or drink. And maybe we could throw in music in sensual-ism. The main
goal in life for millions of young people is something they like to
feel. Others are mastered by the love of money and what it can buy.
Possessions are a major item in life. And others are kept from
following Jesus by something they want to be. They know that to
follow the Lord they would have to give up that ambition.
These are things that can be laid on an
altar, and they must be, if our dedication is real. We must say
goodbye to these things that are so primary in our lives. Saying
goodbye to them is one way of dying to the flesh. It was by dying in
the flesh that Jesus entered into the presence of God and this is the
way that He has opened for us to follow Him. If this is not real then
our sacrifice is delusional.
In 1972 they were having a very good
meeting at the Greenville Christian Fellowship Church. The Lord was
speaking to a number of people. Among the many who had come forward
that night to do business with God was Vivian Garrett. Vivian was a
very earnest Christian who had a difficult marriage with an unsaved
husband. He had caused her a great deal of sorrow, but her main joy
in life was her son. He was the most precious possession she had. But
the Lord was speaking to Vivian that night about surrendering her son
to Christ. As she knelt at the “altar” praying with others, the
struggle was intense. But at last the transaction was made. She had
released him and gave him up to the Lord. An hour later she went home
to find her son dead on the lawn. In her stunned grief, she looked up
to the Lord, and summed up her dedication in four words, “Lord,
I meant it.” We give much of our sacrifices to the Lord with
clenched fists, hoping the Lord won't take them. But it is not a
sacrifice if it cost us nothing.
One of the best Bible conferences in
Fort Wayne was in 1963. There was a 36 year old girl who had just
graduated from Fort Wayne Bible College and was seeking guidance as
to what the Lord wanted her to do. By worldly standards, the
conference was the worst in years. The attendance was shockingly low.
The preaching was dead, and the response was abysmal. But the Lord
was doing a special work in the heart of one dear sister. She was
struggling with the reality of the cost of genuine dedication, and
spent all night weeping in a life and death struggle. She knew if
she actually laid her life on the altar, it would cost her her life
of everything she hoped to have, or to be. But at last the battle
was won. Two years later Mary Ellen Goodman came to Japan as a
missionary, and was the finest soul winner I have ever met in my
life, and filled with Christ like few missionaries ever get. How did
Mary Ellen enter such a marvelous life of Christ? It was by the death
of her flesh. When she laid herself on the altar, it cost her
everything, but with that she gained everything with Jesus.
As I have been considering the altar in
my life everyday, this has brought me to serious examination on how
real my worship of God is, and what I am laying on the altar. In this
I am both fortunate and unfortunate. I am fortunate in that
dedication is very easy. The problem is not dedication, but pleading
with God to take it. And I am unfortunate in that I have virtually
nothing to offer the Lord. I am dead broke. I have no possessions to
offer the Lord. Sensual-ism is not an attraction to me. Sex, drugs,
and drink are not something I crave. My life is basically behind me.
It is ridiculous to think of any position in front of me that I want
to hold. Really my hands are empty. It is a tremendous grief to me
that I have virtually nothing to offer the Lord. The only thing I can
think of that might be meaningful is time. This is something that
everyone has at their disposal. At a bare minimum, we should place
that daily on a serious altar and offer Him our time in prayer and
fellowship with God. There is such a thing as thank offerings and the
sacrifice of praise. That really doesn't cost us anything, but it is
something that can be a genuine offering to Jesus.
On any OT altars there were two items –
blood and fire. It took both. The blood speaks of
offering up a life. In this Jesus has made an offering for us that
was impossible for us to make. We cannot reduplicate that. But He
does require us to offer our lives as a “living sacrifice” (Rom.
12:1). But an offering on an altar is just so much dead meat without
fire. The fire literally converts the flesh on an animal to another
state – smoke. In Leviticus there is a great deal of mention of the
sweet savour for the Lord (Lev. 1:9,13,17; 2:9,12; 3;5,16; etc.).
When God smells that offering it brings joy to His heart. In every
case where the word “sweet savour” is mentioned, there is also
the expression, “an offering made by fire”. Without the fire, at
best, the sacrifice would be a stench. But where is our fire? The
answer, obviously, is the Holy Spirit. It takes the Holy Spirit to
ignite our hearts so that the sacrifice we make comes from a burning
heart. The promise of the Bible is that He would baptize us with
the Holy Spirit and fire (Mt. 3:11). In exhorting
the believes in Rome to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice,
Paul also adds that this is only their “reasonable service”. How
can we do less? And it is also important that the Holy Spirit ignites
the fire to convert our offering to that spiritual aroma that is
pleasing to God. Oh may God make this real in me. I don't want to
offer to God a cold meat sandwich.
What a privilege that we do have an
altar! It is here that we do business with God. This is all a mystery
to the unsaved, but God has brought us into His family and our
relationship to Him is real. Lord, make it to be so.
May God's great goodness be upon you
this week,
bill
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Sunday, March 23, 2014
The Pot is Boiling
23 March 2014
Dear Phyllis,
The top news item for the past two weeks has been the disappearance of the Malaysian Airline Flight 370. My dear friend Luke Kuepfer wrote me twice asking my opinion of what happened. I don't want to spend too much space discussing this issue but there are a few facts that seem obvious. The first is that there was nothing mechanically wrong with that Boeing 777. Both Boeing and Roles Royce have incontestable data proving that the plane was airborne for at least seven hours binging engine reports. Very clearly this was a hijacking. Secondly, there must have been pilot complicity as there clearly was no struggle in the cockpit. Major flight changes were made before the last voice communication calmly stating, “All right, good night”. If that bird was hijacked and airborne for seven hours I find it impossible to believe that the pilots flew it somewhere just to dump it in the ocean.
Somehow they have data showing that there were extreme altitude fluctuations. For some mysterious reason, someone tried to nurse that aircraft up to 45,000 feet. This is 2,000 feet above the service ceiling of 43,000 feet of the 777, and it would be a hard trick of zooming to force that bird higher than it would sustain at level flight. I saw a Fox News video of Megan Kelley talking with six pilot about the altitude mystery. Amazingly no one suggested what, to me, is the obvious explanation. Any pilot who flies at high altitude should know that above 35,000 feet oxygen is ineffective. It takes pressure to force oxygen into the blood system; and at 40,000 feet you can be sitting there with your lungs filled with oxygen and pass out.
I had one experience when I was flying with another guy one day in a T-bird (T-33). The guy in the back seat was terrible. He couldn't keep the wings level. He was wagging his wings like a drunk trying to walk a straight line. I was thinking he was just a poor pilot when he said, "There is something wrong with this aircraft that it won't fly straight."You try it.” I thought I would show him how a professional pilot flies, but was surprised that I couldn't do much better. As we discussed the problem, the only thing we could come up with that was unusual was the cabin pressurization wasn't working right, and we were at the highest cabin pressure I had ever been at. He suggested, “Do you think we are hypoxic ( lack of oxygen)?” To check that we decided to go over to pressure breathing. When a person passes out from lack of oxygen, the first thing that goes is their vision. The peripheral vision shrinks until it looks like you are looking down the barrel of a shot gun, and then the lights go out. When we switched over to pressure breathing, suddenly our vision went whoom. We were both startled. We were both partially out and didn't know it. Needless to say we stayed on pressure breathing, made a rapid decent, and went home go get some coffee.
It seems obvious to me that what happened in Flight 370 is that the pilots dumped the cabin pressure, and took that bird up as high as they could get it. When they did that, all the oxygen masks that are in the passenger seats would fall down and everyone would put them on. The pilots have a separate system of pressure breathing in the cockpit. At high altitude in a few minutes everyone in that aircraft would be out cold, and then dead, except the pilots who were on pressure breathing. That would be just like filling the cabin with Sarine gas. After they sat above 40,000 feet for a few minutes the pilots descended to 25,000 feet which is a much more comfortable altitude to fly at. Every passenger in that aircraft presumably had a cell phone, and some may have worked on satellite. It was necessary to kill everyone on broad before flying on to their intended destination.
Luke asked me about radar. There is no radar in the middle of the ocean. Radar only extends out to 200 or 300 miles from the coast line. Of course when they got near land skin paint would begin to pick them up. There is only one place I know where they could fly over land without a problem. The Pakistan ICI is quit closely aligned with the Taliban. If they could hide Ben Laden one mile from the Pakistan military academy for 11 years, they would have no trouble keeping a few radar sighting from being reported.
I saw General McInerney being interviewed on Sean Hannity. He was strongly of the opinion that the Boeing 777 was on the ground in Pakistan. He was very tight lipped and admitted that he knew a great deal more than he was at liberty to discuss on TV, but did indicate that there is very strong evidence pointing in that direction. That would be my guess too.
But what does all this have to do with the Lord? The most numb-skull observer would have to admit that, internationally, the pot is boiling. Russia takes over Crimea. Putin is thumbing his nose at Obama. Syria and Iran are major hot spots that have got to explode soon. Putin is directing traffic in both places. The Islamic movement is so major it is hard to know what area to look at. The US and world economic situation is teetering on a pin head. Politically, the world situation is stunning.
There is no question but what Obama is God's curse on America. He is an unbelievable miracle. He is the first foreigner who ever was elected to a high office in the US government. It is illegal for someone who is not native born to be president. Obama was a Fulbright scholar where it is illegal for American citizens to receive that aid. He has paid over a million dollars to keep his personal records sealed. No one has seen his grades in college or anything else. It is extremely difficult to believe he is a native born American. That turkey is a radical leftist. He is an extreme ideologue who thinks that communism is utopia. For 70 years the world had a blazing testimony of the wonder of communism with the Iron Curtain and Bamboo Curtain. It was so wonderful in Russia, China, and Vietnam that they had to erect a tight curtain to keep the population from fleeing. Ten of thousand of Vietnamese risked death in boats trying to get out of utopia in Communist Vietnam. This is what Obama wants to make America. And he got elected twice! I have never heard of such a miracle election.
Recently I was staggered by some things I learned about the European Union. I never knew that the head quarters for the EU in Brussels is the Tower of Babel. That was unbelievable, but they built it an exact copy even to it being unfinished. Then I was stunned to see the insignia of the EU is a woman riding a beast. This looks exactly like pictures I have seen in Bibles of the woman riding the beast in Rev. 17. But then the most bewildering thing yet was a picture of a poster of the EU headquarter covered with a rainbow of stars. The shocking thing was that all the stars are inverted, very clearly depicting the goats head. I saw a picture of satan sitting on his throne looking like a goat. The inverted stars over the EU looked exactly like the picture of the goat sitting on satan's throne. The goat is, of course, the universal symbol of the unsaved in the Bible (Mt. 25:32,33). How much more blatant can you get? The stage is set. The show is going on right now. It is difficult to believe that we won't see stage 2 of the mystery of the missing Malaysian 370 soon in another part of the world. Whoever took that plane didn't get it for a toy for his son. We have four Blood Moons this year and next. You name it and it is happening right now.
What should our attitude be? Hallelujah! Jesus is getting on His horse (Rev. 19:11). This morning I read Isa. 33. It seemed like the most wonderful chapter in the Bible. When I read, “O Lord, be gracious to us; we have waited for Thee; be Thou their arm every morning: be Thou our salvation also in the time of trouble” (Isa. 33:2); my heart soared. Verse 8 says, “Now I will rise, saith the Lord; now I will be exalted: now I will lift up Myself.” Amen! Lord do it!! As always, our finances are tight, but I read, “Bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure” (vr. 16). Praise God. But the most wonderful verse was verse 17; “Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty, they shall behold the land that is very far off.” This is what it is all about. I am convinced that the Book of Revelation is not the account of the revelations of the seals, trumpets or vials of wrath (Rev. 6, 8, 16). It is the revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:1). The bottom line is Jesus is made King (Rev. 19:15,15), the tabernacle of God is with men (Rec. 21:3 and they shall see His Face (Rev. 22:4). Maybe I got that wrong. Before all this happens we have the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7).
When Rosemary and I were married we had to wait six months. I thought that time would never come. Anyone who is in love can hardly wait to be with their partner. We think this waiting is hard on us; there is no question but what Jesus has a greater desire for us than we do for Him. He is the one who is waiting. But that time is almost here.
My friend Dave and Joyce Moore have an outstanding Thai pastor working with them at Abba House. Et is as good a man as I have ever met. He is a man who is truly filled with Christ. Fifteen years ago the Lord told him to marry a girl who had AIDS. I have never heard of such an insane thing. His chance of getting HIV was 100%. In obedience to the Lord he married her. They have three children who are all clear. He gets himself checked every year and he is free of HIV. But recently his wife came down with cancer. Yesterday I asked him how his wife is doing. His first response was, “Oh it is wonderful! We have been married 15 years and it seems like we were just married last week.” Seldom have I seen a happier married man. Then I asked, “Is your wife sick?” He responded, “Yes, of course, she is sick. She has cancer. But I told her, 'Don't talk to God telling Him how big your cancer is. Talk to your cancer and tell it how big your God is'”. I understand this is well posted on Facebook. Wherever it came from, that is very good advice. The size of mountains, problems, or cancer has nothing to do with it. The whole issue is what are we looking at? If we look at our problems, they will just keep getting bigger. But if we look at the Lord, He will fill our sight. Years ago, when my world was coming unglued, the Lord spoke to me and said, “Look unto Me and be saved” (Isa. 45:22). I can honestly say, that was the only thing that saved me. Had it not been for that, I certainly would have gone under.
In the bad days, the more I prayed the worst things got. Then at the apex of trial the Lord reminded of the verse I had chosen to be my life verse 30 years previously. “One thing have I desired of the Lord. That will I seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord... to behold the beauty of the Lord.. (Ps.27:4). When I began to seek to behold the beauty of the Lord that changed a lot of things in my mind. The first thing I discovered was that I couldn't see anything. That brought up all sorts of questions. I have told you about this several times. But the main issue of beholding the beauty of the Lord has always been major. Praise God, today I know the answers to many of those questions I had 23 years ago. To a limited degree I can now see a little of His beauty. But oh, my eyesight is poor. At best we see through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13:12). Anyone who says they have good eyesight is on a trip. But it is safe to say that we should all see better than we do. Fortunately it is not just a few isolated promises, but the hope of the Bible that someday we will behold His Face.
I love the words of that great hymn, The Sands of Time are Sinking. Verse two says “The Bride eyes not her garment, but her dear Bridegrooms face. I will not look at glory but to my Prince of grace. Not to the crown He giveth, but to His pierced Hand, the Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel's land.” That is what it is all about. Jesus!
bill
Dear Phyllis,
The top news item for the past two weeks has been the disappearance of the Malaysian Airline Flight 370. My dear friend Luke Kuepfer wrote me twice asking my opinion of what happened. I don't want to spend too much space discussing this issue but there are a few facts that seem obvious. The first is that there was nothing mechanically wrong with that Boeing 777. Both Boeing and Roles Royce have incontestable data proving that the plane was airborne for at least seven hours binging engine reports. Very clearly this was a hijacking. Secondly, there must have been pilot complicity as there clearly was no struggle in the cockpit. Major flight changes were made before the last voice communication calmly stating, “All right, good night”. If that bird was hijacked and airborne for seven hours I find it impossible to believe that the pilots flew it somewhere just to dump it in the ocean.
Somehow they have data showing that there were extreme altitude fluctuations. For some mysterious reason, someone tried to nurse that aircraft up to 45,000 feet. This is 2,000 feet above the service ceiling of 43,000 feet of the 777, and it would be a hard trick of zooming to force that bird higher than it would sustain at level flight. I saw a Fox News video of Megan Kelley talking with six pilot about the altitude mystery. Amazingly no one suggested what, to me, is the obvious explanation. Any pilot who flies at high altitude should know that above 35,000 feet oxygen is ineffective. It takes pressure to force oxygen into the blood system; and at 40,000 feet you can be sitting there with your lungs filled with oxygen and pass out.
I had one experience when I was flying with another guy one day in a T-bird (T-33). The guy in the back seat was terrible. He couldn't keep the wings level. He was wagging his wings like a drunk trying to walk a straight line. I was thinking he was just a poor pilot when he said, "There is something wrong with this aircraft that it won't fly straight."You try it.” I thought I would show him how a professional pilot flies, but was surprised that I couldn't do much better. As we discussed the problem, the only thing we could come up with that was unusual was the cabin pressurization wasn't working right, and we were at the highest cabin pressure I had ever been at. He suggested, “Do you think we are hypoxic ( lack of oxygen)?” To check that we decided to go over to pressure breathing. When a person passes out from lack of oxygen, the first thing that goes is their vision. The peripheral vision shrinks until it looks like you are looking down the barrel of a shot gun, and then the lights go out. When we switched over to pressure breathing, suddenly our vision went whoom. We were both startled. We were both partially out and didn't know it. Needless to say we stayed on pressure breathing, made a rapid decent, and went home go get some coffee.
It seems obvious to me that what happened in Flight 370 is that the pilots dumped the cabin pressure, and took that bird up as high as they could get it. When they did that, all the oxygen masks that are in the passenger seats would fall down and everyone would put them on. The pilots have a separate system of pressure breathing in the cockpit. At high altitude in a few minutes everyone in that aircraft would be out cold, and then dead, except the pilots who were on pressure breathing. That would be just like filling the cabin with Sarine gas. After they sat above 40,000 feet for a few minutes the pilots descended to 25,000 feet which is a much more comfortable altitude to fly at. Every passenger in that aircraft presumably had a cell phone, and some may have worked on satellite. It was necessary to kill everyone on broad before flying on to their intended destination.
Luke asked me about radar. There is no radar in the middle of the ocean. Radar only extends out to 200 or 300 miles from the coast line. Of course when they got near land skin paint would begin to pick them up. There is only one place I know where they could fly over land without a problem. The Pakistan ICI is quit closely aligned with the Taliban. If they could hide Ben Laden one mile from the Pakistan military academy for 11 years, they would have no trouble keeping a few radar sighting from being reported.
I saw General McInerney being interviewed on Sean Hannity. He was strongly of the opinion that the Boeing 777 was on the ground in Pakistan. He was very tight lipped and admitted that he knew a great deal more than he was at liberty to discuss on TV, but did indicate that there is very strong evidence pointing in that direction. That would be my guess too.
But what does all this have to do with the Lord? The most numb-skull observer would have to admit that, internationally, the pot is boiling. Russia takes over Crimea. Putin is thumbing his nose at Obama. Syria and Iran are major hot spots that have got to explode soon. Putin is directing traffic in both places. The Islamic movement is so major it is hard to know what area to look at. The US and world economic situation is teetering on a pin head. Politically, the world situation is stunning.
There is no question but what Obama is God's curse on America. He is an unbelievable miracle. He is the first foreigner who ever was elected to a high office in the US government. It is illegal for someone who is not native born to be president. Obama was a Fulbright scholar where it is illegal for American citizens to receive that aid. He has paid over a million dollars to keep his personal records sealed. No one has seen his grades in college or anything else. It is extremely difficult to believe he is a native born American. That turkey is a radical leftist. He is an extreme ideologue who thinks that communism is utopia. For 70 years the world had a blazing testimony of the wonder of communism with the Iron Curtain and Bamboo Curtain. It was so wonderful in Russia, China, and Vietnam that they had to erect a tight curtain to keep the population from fleeing. Ten of thousand of Vietnamese risked death in boats trying to get out of utopia in Communist Vietnam. This is what Obama wants to make America. And he got elected twice! I have never heard of such a miracle election.
Recently I was staggered by some things I learned about the European Union. I never knew that the head quarters for the EU in Brussels is the Tower of Babel. That was unbelievable, but they built it an exact copy even to it being unfinished. Then I was stunned to see the insignia of the EU is a woman riding a beast. This looks exactly like pictures I have seen in Bibles of the woman riding the beast in Rev. 17. But then the most bewildering thing yet was a picture of a poster of the EU headquarter covered with a rainbow of stars. The shocking thing was that all the stars are inverted, very clearly depicting the goats head. I saw a picture of satan sitting on his throne looking like a goat. The inverted stars over the EU looked exactly like the picture of the goat sitting on satan's throne. The goat is, of course, the universal symbol of the unsaved in the Bible (Mt. 25:32,33). How much more blatant can you get? The stage is set. The show is going on right now. It is difficult to believe that we won't see stage 2 of the mystery of the missing Malaysian 370 soon in another part of the world. Whoever took that plane didn't get it for a toy for his son. We have four Blood Moons this year and next. You name it and it is happening right now.
What should our attitude be? Hallelujah! Jesus is getting on His horse (Rev. 19:11). This morning I read Isa. 33. It seemed like the most wonderful chapter in the Bible. When I read, “O Lord, be gracious to us; we have waited for Thee; be Thou their arm every morning: be Thou our salvation also in the time of trouble” (Isa. 33:2); my heart soared. Verse 8 says, “Now I will rise, saith the Lord; now I will be exalted: now I will lift up Myself.” Amen! Lord do it!! As always, our finances are tight, but I read, “Bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure” (vr. 16). Praise God. But the most wonderful verse was verse 17; “Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty, they shall behold the land that is very far off.” This is what it is all about. I am convinced that the Book of Revelation is not the account of the revelations of the seals, trumpets or vials of wrath (Rev. 6, 8, 16). It is the revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:1). The bottom line is Jesus is made King (Rev. 19:15,15), the tabernacle of God is with men (Rec. 21:3 and they shall see His Face (Rev. 22:4). Maybe I got that wrong. Before all this happens we have the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7).
When Rosemary and I were married we had to wait six months. I thought that time would never come. Anyone who is in love can hardly wait to be with their partner. We think this waiting is hard on us; there is no question but what Jesus has a greater desire for us than we do for Him. He is the one who is waiting. But that time is almost here.
My friend Dave and Joyce Moore have an outstanding Thai pastor working with them at Abba House. Et is as good a man as I have ever met. He is a man who is truly filled with Christ. Fifteen years ago the Lord told him to marry a girl who had AIDS. I have never heard of such an insane thing. His chance of getting HIV was 100%. In obedience to the Lord he married her. They have three children who are all clear. He gets himself checked every year and he is free of HIV. But recently his wife came down with cancer. Yesterday I asked him how his wife is doing. His first response was, “Oh it is wonderful! We have been married 15 years and it seems like we were just married last week.” Seldom have I seen a happier married man. Then I asked, “Is your wife sick?” He responded, “Yes, of course, she is sick. She has cancer. But I told her, 'Don't talk to God telling Him how big your cancer is. Talk to your cancer and tell it how big your God is'”. I understand this is well posted on Facebook. Wherever it came from, that is very good advice. The size of mountains, problems, or cancer has nothing to do with it. The whole issue is what are we looking at? If we look at our problems, they will just keep getting bigger. But if we look at the Lord, He will fill our sight. Years ago, when my world was coming unglued, the Lord spoke to me and said, “Look unto Me and be saved” (Isa. 45:22). I can honestly say, that was the only thing that saved me. Had it not been for that, I certainly would have gone under.
In the bad days, the more I prayed the worst things got. Then at the apex of trial the Lord reminded of the verse I had chosen to be my life verse 30 years previously. “One thing have I desired of the Lord. That will I seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord... to behold the beauty of the Lord.. (Ps.27:4). When I began to seek to behold the beauty of the Lord that changed a lot of things in my mind. The first thing I discovered was that I couldn't see anything. That brought up all sorts of questions. I have told you about this several times. But the main issue of beholding the beauty of the Lord has always been major. Praise God, today I know the answers to many of those questions I had 23 years ago. To a limited degree I can now see a little of His beauty. But oh, my eyesight is poor. At best we see through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13:12). Anyone who says they have good eyesight is on a trip. But it is safe to say that we should all see better than we do. Fortunately it is not just a few isolated promises, but the hope of the Bible that someday we will behold His Face.
I love the words of that great hymn, The Sands of Time are Sinking. Verse two says “The Bride eyes not her garment, but her dear Bridegrooms face. I will not look at glory but to my Prince of grace. Not to the crown He giveth, but to His pierced Hand, the Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel's land.” That is what it is all about. Jesus!
bill
Monday, March 17, 2014
Blood Christ Part II
16 March 2014
Dear Phyllis,
It has been a slow week but we are told not to despise the day of small things (Zech. 4:10). Vocationally. I guess I am a wood-worker/cabinet man. At least that is what consumes most of my time. I wonder how many hours a day Paul spent making tents. It must have been sufficient to support himself and the staff that were with him (1 Cor. 4:12; Act. 18:3). Unfortunately, I don't make any money. Actually this is costing me money. The purpose of this endeavor is to teach hill tribe young men a trade to enable them to financially do better in life. I am not sure how this advances the kingdom of God but it is better than sitting in a office reading Time magazine. The Lord has provided a very outstanding Lisu pastor who is working with me, who will be able to take over this operation soon. I really like this guy. John is the best co-worker I have had since Koji 40 years ago.
Physically my body has been engaged in making a cabinet and a podium for the kindergarten where I teach, and an order for ten bunk beds that have to be done by the end of the month, but my mind has been engaged in trying to get a better understanding of the Blood Christ. I told you I would try to discuss drinking the Blood of Christ. My understanding of that subject is still probably less than 5%, but I am beginning to see why Jesus made that statement (Jn. 6:55).
It can be safely said that there is nothing more important in life than blood. Blood has at least two basic functions. It is the vehicle that provides the nutriment for the body, and it takes away the spent nutrients, or it is the garbage man. But beyond that the Bible tells us one more vital piece of information. It says that the life is in the blood (Lev. 17:14). And it emphasizes that by saying “the life of all flesh is in the blood.”
I have been trying to get a better understanding about life and have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to define. We can see its existence, and know its effect or actions. Lifes absence is obvious. We know where life is and where it isn't, but to define it is beyond human comprehension. I feel strongly that we are up against the same problem in understanding the Blood of Christ. There is much we can know about it, and see its effect or power. What it produces is very real, but to probe deeper into that mystery is beyond human understanding. However it appears there is no subject more prominent in the Scripture than the Blood.
There is a basic difference between a mannequin and a human. A mannequin has no life and a human does. Without life all you have is a corpse. To have life there must be a supply system that does two things – carry the food to the body, and take away the waste. Without a steady supply of food any living thing will die. Life is not static. Living things must be feed. I fear this is a serious problem for many Christians. How in the world can we sustain life if we don't feed daily on Jesus? Devotions is not just a good idea; it is as an absolute necessity as sitting at a table and eating three times a day. Jesus said that we don't live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Mt. 4:4). This tells us three things. The first is obvious – we must have bread (food). Secondly, there is spiritual food that we must feed on, And thirdly that bread is what proceeds from the mouth of God. And in this may I state, that there is a difference between God speaking to us, and reading something printed on a page. It is not just a good idea, it is utterly necessary that we maintain a close relationship with the Lord speaking to us on a daily basis. We must be on speaking terms with God or we will die.
In any living organism there must be a system to carry away the spent waste. When I was in Oregon building a church several years ago, a dear 60 year old sister came to me asking if there was anything she could do to help. I told her that if she would help with cleaning up, that would be a great assistance. Every morning at 6:00 AM, Dorthy Webb was at the job site picking up scrap, straightening up piles of things, and sweeping the floor. Sub-contractors who came in there told me they had never seen such a well run, clean, job site. Without Dorthy we would have buried ourselves in scrap. Somebody has got to pick that up. The blood carries away the spent food as well as carrying the nutrients to the body.
All living organisms have within them the law of life in the seed. An acorn doesn't look like much, but planted in the ground, it will produce an oak tree. Amazingly, that oak tree produce more acorns, which will continue to produce oak trees. This process will go on indefinitely. At this point, it is impossible to explain how sin nature is transmitted in humanity, but history has proven, incontestably, that Adam's sin nature has been transmitted to every child born since Cain. There is something in that seed that has been reproduced in billions of babies for 6,000 years.
Doctors tell us that at conception, when the male seed fertilizes the female egg, the blood of the child comes exclusively from the male seed. From the moment of fertilization on there is nothing of the mothers blood in the fetus. The placenta separates the child from the mother for the entire period of pregnancy and the supply system through the umbilical cord keeps the blood separate. Something happened in Mary that had never happened since Adam first opened his eyes in the Garden. Every child that has ever been born on this planet had inherited his blood from Adam. But, in Jesus case, that was the only child that has ever been born that didn't have a drop of Adam's blood in Him. At conception that Fetus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. That is why the Blood of Jesus is different and that is why Jesus was the only person born without Adam's sin nature. His Blood was absolutely unique. That Being grew to be a man and lived for 33 years without ever once stepping out of line in a perfect life of obedience to the will of God. He fulfilled what was God's initial purpose in creating man in the Garden. That perfect life was in His Blood.
Recently the Lord showed me something that is obvious but interesting. Jesus is eternal. John says that,“In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word (Jesus) was with God, and the Word (Jesus) was God” (Jn.1:1). In eternity there is no time. But Jesus stepped into time when He became a man. Before the inception in Mary's womb there never was the Blood of Jesus. That is why it was necessary for Jesus to become a man so there could be His Blood.
Life has something to do with spirits. Angelic and demonic spirits have life but they have no bodies. In that we are unique. I believe this is one reason why demons want to live in something. They want to live in a human, an animal (Mk. 5:12), an idol, a spirit house, or even a tree. That is why groves were significant in the Bible. We have a spirit in our body. We remain alive as long as that spirit stays in the body, but when there is separation then we have death to the body – but not the spirit.
When we die our spirit leaves our body and blood decays. But Jesus' body was unique in that there was no corruption (Acts 2:27). Jesus body and His Blood did not decay. There was something unique about His Blood. In the resurrected Body of Jesus He mentioned His flesh and bones but said nothing about His Blood (Lk. 24:39). Here is a mystery that can not be comprehended by our human minds. The Blood of Jesus was (is) real. When the soldier thrust that spear into the body of Jesus the Blood poured out (Jn. 19:34). That was very real Blood. When Jesus died and shed His Blood on the Cross there was a transition from the physical to the spiritual. Up until Jesus' Blood was shed it was something entirely physical. He could give blood to the Red Cross just like we do and it would only be physical. But after the Blood was shed, it is entirely spiritual. Hebrews speaks a great deal about the subsequent work and power of the Blood. Indeed the entire message of the Blood in the Bible is all related to the shed Blood of Christ. That Blood may be spiritual but it is still very real and we see the effect of it daily. The power of the Blood is real. Fictitious or imaginary things have no power. But the Blood of Christ cleansed heaven, erased sin, cleansed our hearts, destroyed the power of the devil, and broke the power of sin. How this happens no one can understand. But for anyone who is born of the Spirit of God there is no question but what it is real.
The central issue on this planet is life and death. The Bible tells us clearly that the cause of death is sin. The fundamental law that “the soul that sins it shall die” (Ez. 18:20) has never changed. And the strength of sin is the law (1 Cor. 15:56). That is why for 4,000 years there were millions of animals whose blood was shed to prefigure the real Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. It was His life that fulfilled the law
making it possible for His Blood to cancel sin.
And eating and drinking is not a one time experience. This business about believing in Jesus when someone is 12 years old and then doing nothing after that is insane. Jesus told us that we must feed on Him. I am convinced that eating His flesh and drinking His Blood is not a new intellectual understanding. But there is understanding involved in it. No one understands the full scope of life when they are first born. But as we walk
with the Lord the Holy Spirit reveals to us the details of what that Life is and how to maintain it. We talk about feeding on football, feeding on sex, feeding on politics, etc. I think we can understand that. Anyone who feeds on something spends a lot of time thinking about that. It is safe to say they have a passion about it. We need to have a passion about Jesus. We need to spend a great deal of time in the Scripture allowing the Holy Spirit to show us spiritual truth that is so vital. We spend hours a day sitting at tables eating and drinking. We need to spend much time doing the same with the Lord.
Gomen nasai for this rambling exposition. You may be more confused than before but this is a subject that has tremendously engaged me.
Have a good week walking with Jesus,
bill
Dear Phyllis,
It has been a slow week but we are told not to despise the day of small things (Zech. 4:10). Vocationally. I guess I am a wood-worker/cabinet man. At least that is what consumes most of my time. I wonder how many hours a day Paul spent making tents. It must have been sufficient to support himself and the staff that were with him (1 Cor. 4:12; Act. 18:3). Unfortunately, I don't make any money. Actually this is costing me money. The purpose of this endeavor is to teach hill tribe young men a trade to enable them to financially do better in life. I am not sure how this advances the kingdom of God but it is better than sitting in a office reading Time magazine. The Lord has provided a very outstanding Lisu pastor who is working with me, who will be able to take over this operation soon. I really like this guy. John is the best co-worker I have had since Koji 40 years ago.
Physically my body has been engaged in making a cabinet and a podium for the kindergarten where I teach, and an order for ten bunk beds that have to be done by the end of the month, but my mind has been engaged in trying to get a better understanding of the Blood Christ. I told you I would try to discuss drinking the Blood of Christ. My understanding of that subject is still probably less than 5%, but I am beginning to see why Jesus made that statement (Jn. 6:55).
It can be safely said that there is nothing more important in life than blood. Blood has at least two basic functions. It is the vehicle that provides the nutriment for the body, and it takes away the spent nutrients, or it is the garbage man. But beyond that the Bible tells us one more vital piece of information. It says that the life is in the blood (Lev. 17:14). And it emphasizes that by saying “the life of all flesh is in the blood.”
I have been trying to get a better understanding about life and have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to define. We can see its existence, and know its effect or actions. Lifes absence is obvious. We know where life is and where it isn't, but to define it is beyond human comprehension. I feel strongly that we are up against the same problem in understanding the Blood of Christ. There is much we can know about it, and see its effect or power. What it produces is very real, but to probe deeper into that mystery is beyond human understanding. However it appears there is no subject more prominent in the Scripture than the Blood.
There is a basic difference between a mannequin and a human. A mannequin has no life and a human does. Without life all you have is a corpse. To have life there must be a supply system that does two things – carry the food to the body, and take away the waste. Without a steady supply of food any living thing will die. Life is not static. Living things must be feed. I fear this is a serious problem for many Christians. How in the world can we sustain life if we don't feed daily on Jesus? Devotions is not just a good idea; it is as an absolute necessity as sitting at a table and eating three times a day. Jesus said that we don't live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Mt. 4:4). This tells us three things. The first is obvious – we must have bread (food). Secondly, there is spiritual food that we must feed on, And thirdly that bread is what proceeds from the mouth of God. And in this may I state, that there is a difference between God speaking to us, and reading something printed on a page. It is not just a good idea, it is utterly necessary that we maintain a close relationship with the Lord speaking to us on a daily basis. We must be on speaking terms with God or we will die.
In any living organism there must be a system to carry away the spent waste. When I was in Oregon building a church several years ago, a dear 60 year old sister came to me asking if there was anything she could do to help. I told her that if she would help with cleaning up, that would be a great assistance. Every morning at 6:00 AM, Dorthy Webb was at the job site picking up scrap, straightening up piles of things, and sweeping the floor. Sub-contractors who came in there told me they had never seen such a well run, clean, job site. Without Dorthy we would have buried ourselves in scrap. Somebody has got to pick that up. The blood carries away the spent food as well as carrying the nutrients to the body.
All living organisms have within them the law of life in the seed. An acorn doesn't look like much, but planted in the ground, it will produce an oak tree. Amazingly, that oak tree produce more acorns, which will continue to produce oak trees. This process will go on indefinitely. At this point, it is impossible to explain how sin nature is transmitted in humanity, but history has proven, incontestably, that Adam's sin nature has been transmitted to every child born since Cain. There is something in that seed that has been reproduced in billions of babies for 6,000 years.
Doctors tell us that at conception, when the male seed fertilizes the female egg, the blood of the child comes exclusively from the male seed. From the moment of fertilization on there is nothing of the mothers blood in the fetus. The placenta separates the child from the mother for the entire period of pregnancy and the supply system through the umbilical cord keeps the blood separate. Something happened in Mary that had never happened since Adam first opened his eyes in the Garden. Every child that has ever been born on this planet had inherited his blood from Adam. But, in Jesus case, that was the only child that has ever been born that didn't have a drop of Adam's blood in Him. At conception that Fetus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. That is why the Blood of Jesus is different and that is why Jesus was the only person born without Adam's sin nature. His Blood was absolutely unique. That Being grew to be a man and lived for 33 years without ever once stepping out of line in a perfect life of obedience to the will of God. He fulfilled what was God's initial purpose in creating man in the Garden. That perfect life was in His Blood.
Recently the Lord showed me something that is obvious but interesting. Jesus is eternal. John says that,“In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word (Jesus) was with God, and the Word (Jesus) was God” (Jn.1:1). In eternity there is no time. But Jesus stepped into time when He became a man. Before the inception in Mary's womb there never was the Blood of Jesus. That is why it was necessary for Jesus to become a man so there could be His Blood.
Life has something to do with spirits. Angelic and demonic spirits have life but they have no bodies. In that we are unique. I believe this is one reason why demons want to live in something. They want to live in a human, an animal (Mk. 5:12), an idol, a spirit house, or even a tree. That is why groves were significant in the Bible. We have a spirit in our body. We remain alive as long as that spirit stays in the body, but when there is separation then we have death to the body – but not the spirit.
When we die our spirit leaves our body and blood decays. But Jesus' body was unique in that there was no corruption (Acts 2:27). Jesus body and His Blood did not decay. There was something unique about His Blood. In the resurrected Body of Jesus He mentioned His flesh and bones but said nothing about His Blood (Lk. 24:39). Here is a mystery that can not be comprehended by our human minds. The Blood of Jesus was (is) real. When the soldier thrust that spear into the body of Jesus the Blood poured out (Jn. 19:34). That was very real Blood. When Jesus died and shed His Blood on the Cross there was a transition from the physical to the spiritual. Up until Jesus' Blood was shed it was something entirely physical. He could give blood to the Red Cross just like we do and it would only be physical. But after the Blood was shed, it is entirely spiritual. Hebrews speaks a great deal about the subsequent work and power of the Blood. Indeed the entire message of the Blood in the Bible is all related to the shed Blood of Christ. That Blood may be spiritual but it is still very real and we see the effect of it daily. The power of the Blood is real. Fictitious or imaginary things have no power. But the Blood of Christ cleansed heaven, erased sin, cleansed our hearts, destroyed the power of the devil, and broke the power of sin. How this happens no one can understand. But for anyone who is born of the Spirit of God there is no question but what it is real.
The central issue on this planet is life and death. The Bible tells us clearly that the cause of death is sin. The fundamental law that “the soul that sins it shall die” (Ez. 18:20) has never changed. And the strength of sin is the law (1 Cor. 15:56). That is why for 4,000 years there were millions of animals whose blood was shed to prefigure the real Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. It was His life that fulfilled the law
making it possible for His Blood to cancel sin.
But what
does it mean to drink His Blood? For many years I had no idea, but
one thing I did know was that somehow I had done it. I knew that
because there was no question but what Christ lives in my heart. His
life is in me. I am born of His Spirit. Without the new-birth there
simply is no life. That is clear (Jn. 3:3,15; Rom. 8:9). Obviously
it is possible to drink the Blood without understanding the theology.
The thief on the cross knew noting about the Blood but he was saved.
Millions all over the world are saved and born of His Spirit without
understanding the theology of the Blood. The stone-age savage in the
Amazon can be saved and born of the Spirit of God without being able
to read or understand theology. But they have His life. Jesus said
unless a person eats his flesh and drinks His Blood they have no life
in them (Jn. 6:55). This being true, it also means that if a person
has life he has partaken of Jesus' flesh and drunk His Blood.
Therefore drinking His Blood is not dependent on an intellectual
understanding. The Blood and the Life are the same. The Life is in
the Blood, and, with Jesus, we cannot separate them. Drinking the
Blood means partaking His Life. Obviously this is spiritual. To
illustrate that Jesus explained, “As I live by the Father, he that
eateth Me, even he shall live by Me”. You cannot make anything
physical out of that. But when we partake of the Life of Christ that
Life enters our hearts so intimately that the power of it is
expressed in His nature in us. Peter confirms that by reminding us
that we are partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). This is our
new nature or the new man.
And eating and drinking is not a one time experience. This business about believing in Jesus when someone is 12 years old and then doing nothing after that is insane. Jesus told us that we must feed on Him. I am convinced that eating His flesh and drinking His Blood is not a new intellectual understanding. But there is understanding involved in it. No one understands the full scope of life when they are first born. But as we walk
with the Lord the Holy Spirit reveals to us the details of what that Life is and how to maintain it. We talk about feeding on football, feeding on sex, feeding on politics, etc. I think we can understand that. Anyone who feeds on something spends a lot of time thinking about that. It is safe to say they have a passion about it. We need to have a passion about Jesus. We need to spend a great deal of time in the Scripture allowing the Holy Spirit to show us spiritual truth that is so vital. We spend hours a day sitting at tables eating and drinking. We need to spend much time doing the same with the Lord.
Gomen nasai for this rambling exposition. You may be more confused than before but this is a subject that has tremendously engaged me.
Have a good week walking with Jesus,
bill
Sunday, March 9, 2014
It's All In The Blood
9 March 2014
Der Phyllis,
This past week has been a big one for me. I got a top-of-the-line visa for Thailand. This is a major mile stone for me. For the past six years I have gone down to Penang, Malaysia for visas. Last December I went down to my usual guest house/visa service to get my visa and came away with a three months visa. What a bummer! I spent five days and $300 to get a three months visa. But Rom. 8:28 is still a fact. God does make ALL THINGS to work together for good. I couldn't see much good in that. But it was because of that that I have moved up and now have the top-of-the-line visa for 1/5 the price and I got it in four hours without leaving town. Praise the Lord.
Pammy has been doing commendably well since last fall, but she does have a weakness of getting enamored with kooks. Two years ago she came back from the Pentecostal conference with the startling announcement that she met a couple that the Holy Spirit had told both of them that she was to be the pastor of their church. Needless to say, I wasn't too impressed. It took several months – and then several failures – before she realized she was dealing with kooks. Today we are on the same page. The other day she came home again telling me that she met some lady who had a special anointing and understanding about spiritual warfare. Alarm bells. Two weeks ago I went with her to have supper and a meeting with Redeem. I came home saying, “This is an old movie that I have seen before”. Every place has one. I have met several (usually women) who have a special anointing and insight that others don't have.
I am getting to the place where I don't care for spiritual warfare. Peter Wagner has a message about determening the dominant demon over an area, and then binding it. If you do that, then revival breaks out. He brought a bus load of people to Japan several years ago to bind the spirit in Kyoto. I haven't seen much change in Japan since then. The only thing that I saw that came out of that was that Kyoto was enriched by 30 more tourists that came to see the temples. Redeem had a few well worn verses that she pulled out of Eph. 6 to enlightened us about the amour and fighting with spiritual forces. But there is next to nothing written on that subject in the rest of the Pauline epistles, except that Paul says that, “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but might through God to the pulling down of strong holds”, in 2 Cor. 10:4. I have experienced this, but not the way Redeem described it. The biggest spiritual warfare I saw that came out of that night was tension between Pammy and myself. To me that was the spiritual fight. Fortunately last Sunday night Pammy came home again saying, “That woman is crazy”. Praise the Lord.
But the subject of the Blood of Christ is one that has blown my mind.
Andrew Murray deals heavily on explaining the types and shadows of Christ and the Blood in the OT. To refresh myself I decided to reread Leviticus last week. I saw one word that has had a tremendous impact on me. The Day of Atonement in Lev. 16 is a very major event. It was the one day each year when the high priest was permitted to enter behind the Veil into the very presence of God. Andrew Murry points out that the OT Tabernacle was a contradictory statement about the character of God. The fact that God told Moses to build Him a Tabernacle was a statement of God's desire to live with His people. But the Veil was a statement that it was impossible for humans to dwell with God. The Veil was the barrier to keep man out. The love of God would not allow Him to give man up. But the holiness of God would exempt men from His wrath. Atonement was the only possible solution. There must be atonement in order to restore humanity back to the fellowship for which God had originally created him. Therefore God established the Day of Atonement where the priest was permitted to enter behind the Veil solely for the purpose of sprinkling the blood on the Mercy Seat. I have known this for years. But last week when I read Lev. 16:14 I saw a word that I had never seen before – EASTWARD.
The OT Tabernacle, as well as the Temple, was laid out east and west. The entrance was on the east side, and everything the priest did to approach the Lord was by moving from east to west. This is one of the arguments that makes me fanatical for the Back to Jerusalem Movement. The movement of God is from east to west. The first altar that the priest came to was the brass altar where the blood of all sacrifices was poured out. After that was the laver of brass where the priest washed before entering into the Tabernacle itself. Then, inside the Tabernacle, there was the candle sticks on the left, the table of show bread on the right, and the golden altar for burning incense in the middle before the Veil. Behind the Veil was the Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy Seat over it, and the two cherubims on each side. If there was such a thing as God's Throne where He sat, it would have been the Mercy Seat. This, of course, faced eastward. As the priest proceeded from east to west he finally came to the Throne of God who sat there facing east to greet him.
But last week I read that when the priest entered the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the Mercy Seat he was instructed to do that eastward. I said that was impossible. I thought he was facing west, how can he possibly do that eastward? Then the Lord showed me a truth I had never seen before. He had to stand behind the Mercy Seat and sprinkle the blood on the back. Or in other words he had to sprinkle the back of God. With that my mind exploded.
Immediately my mind went to the Cross when Jesus uttered that famous fourth cry, “My God MY God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mt. 27:46). As never before I saw what happened on that Cross when the Father turned His back on His Son. This was prefigured 1,500 times when each year as the priest went into the presence of God, God turned His back on him while he sprinkled the back side of the Mercy Seat facing eastward.
Oh my goodness, what is this? There are few things a person can do to show more emotion than turn your back on someone. That is the ultimate rejection. Watchman Nee said that the sufferings of Christ was rejection. He was rejected by both God and man. He was right. I never saw how totally Jesus was rejected of the Father until I saw that He turned His back on His Son. How can we take that in? It is impossible! There had never been a moment in the life of Christ that He didn't stand in the presence of the Father and saw the Father's face. I know this is difficult, but perhaps we might be able to intellectually accept it. But for Jesus that was reality. Jesus could say on the last night that all would forsake Him, but He was not alone because the Father was with Him (Jn. 16:32). But then 18 hours later the unthinkable happened. There was never a moment when He was not in the presence of the Father. And then at the most intense moment of His life – for the first time – the Father turned His back on His Son. As never before I understood the Fourth Cry from the Cross. It would have been impossible had Jesus not cried this out. My God, why Hast Thou forsaken Me? Vaguely we know the answer.
It was because, at that moment Jesus was bearing the sin of the world. When death was being worked out and Christ was paying the price for sin, the only thing God could do was to turn His back on the guilty one. He could not look in favor on the sin-bearer, even if it was His own Son. Sin is the rejection of God and God can only reject the sinner. He must turn His back on the sinner. Seeing God turn His back was part of paying the price. Oh my goodness, what must have the priest thought every year on the Day of Atonement when they went into the Holy of Holiest to sprinkle the blood to have to stand behind the Throne rather than in front of it? Little could they imagine the suffering of the true sin-bearer who had to endure God turning His back on Him.
For those who feel hell is unreasonable, all we have to consider is the price both the Son and the Father paid to forgive them and give them a free pass into heaven – and then have someone run up their nose and say “no thank you”. Salvation is free – but what a price! Mystery! Mystery! Dear Phyllis, for anyone who thinks they understand the full worth of the Blood of Christ they are on an ego trip. We know next to nothing about it. Oh what Jesus did for us! For 4,000 years real reconciliation between God and Adam and his sons was only something future. The first suggestion was when God slew the animal to clothe Adam and his wife with the skin (Gen 3:21). The next was when Able offered a more acceptable sacrifice (Gen 4:4, Heb. 11:4). After that was Noah, and the list goes on on every page of the Bible.
When Moses asked to see the glory of God, the Lord told him that he could not see His face but only get a glimpse of His back side (Ex. 33:20,23). It is highly significant that the priest was not permitted to stand before the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat (Throne of God) even on the Day of Atonement, but had to sprinkle it from behind. The ultimate of that was when God turned His back on His Son. Oh what an act! It isn't until we get to the very last page of the Bible that we read “They shall see His face” (Rev. 22:4). This is the bottom line of salvation.
Turning His back is the ultimate ruptured relationship. How can it be? The eternal bond between the Father and His Son; and God had to turn His back in order to restore Adam and his sons who had turned their backs on Him. And it was the shedding of that Blood that restored that relationship.
Unquestionably, the is no subject as profound and mysterious in any book, or discussion, as the Blood of Christ. It is the central theme of the Bible. It is genuinely offensive to the natural man. There is no subject more offensive to the natural mind than drinking the Blood of Christ. The Catholcs are dead wrong. It is incomprehensible to the natural man (1 Cor. 2:14), and can only be assimilated by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is able to impart it to us so that it become unspeakably precious, but it is extremely difficult to comprehend with our natural mind.
Paul is struggling with it. We have had some warm discussions. He keeps insisting the Blood is symbolic, and I come back by insisting the Blood is real.Symbolism has no power, but the Blood does have power. I told Paul that the proof of that was what the Blood has done for him. I asked, “Are you different today?” Radically! Totally different! “Has your conscience been cleansed?” Certainly. What did it? There is no question but what the Blood of Christ has totally changed Paul. He comes back, “Yes, but that is by the Holy Spirit.” What we don't realize is that we cannot separate the Holy Spirit from the Blood. The life is in the Blood. It is because Jesus shed His Blood that He was able to pour out His Spirit. It wasn't until Jesus shed His Blood that He was able to pour out His Spirit on us. There was no out-pouring of the Holy Spirit in the OT. There was no out-pouring of the Spirit even in the gospels. It wasn't until Jesus shed His Blood and returned to the Father that He was able to pour out His Spirit on us today.
Gomen nasai. I'm sorry. I promised you last week that I would try to explain something about drinking the Blood of Christ today and I haven't gotten to that subject. That verse in Lev. 16:14 where the priest had to sprinkle the blood EASTWARD so captured my mind that I haven't been able to think about much else than when God turned His back on His Son for us.
Praise God! Isn't is wonderful? What a Savior!
See you next week, Lord willing;
bill
Sunday, March 2, 2014
The Blood
2 March 2014
Dear Phyllis,
Here we are in another month. It has frequently been said that time passes more quickly when you are old. My goodness that is true! When a person is one year old, one year is an entire lifetime. When they are four, a year is a quarter of a lifetime. Now at 78, years pass like months, and months pass like days. The Lord's promise that He would come back quickly is hard to believe when we look at the calendar that 2000 years have passed, and He still isn't here. But I can see now, Jesus is operating by eternity's clock – not earths – and when He gets here, we will agree that He did come quickly. But even so, when we look at the world situation around us today, it is hard to believe that we have more than just a few hours left.
John Hagee has a book out on Four Blood Moons. In this he is simply going by NASA facts of lunar eclipses. There are rare eclipses where the moon looks blood red. Significantly, every time this has happened it has always been on a major Jewish festival. In recent years, in 1948 there was one on the day Israel was founded as a nation. In 1973 there was another one an the day of the Yom Kipper war which was the feast of the Tabernacles. I am not familiar with his book enough to quote the event and the Jewish festival, but I do know that NASA tells us that there will be two blood moons this year, which is the first time in 500 years, and both of these fall on major Jewish festivals. The first one is next month. I will not say dogmatically what will happen, but if Hagee is right, it may be hold-your-hat-Hanna this year as major prophetic events occur.
Perhaps the biggest event last week for us was when we had Pastor Hanook over for supper. He is the brother from Pakistan that has a clear call for us to come to Pakistan. I had a meal with him two weeks ago, and he contacted me saying he wanted to see me again. I was going to take him to a restaurant, but Pammy wanted to have him in our home. It seemed this definitely was of the Lord. The first time I spoke with him, I would rate my chance of going to Pakistan at 10%. The next time I would give it about 30%. But now the chance of it happening has moved up to 60%. I have promised him that if the Lord would provide the finances and a visa that I would come. Both of those look highly unlikely, but Pastor Hanook waves that off as no problem at all. In this he is right. Providing finances and a visa are not serious difficult for Jesus at all. To us they are impossible, but for the Lord, they can be as easy as a passing thought. My first inclination was that, if I go, it would be by myself; but now Pammy is determined that, if I go, she is going with me. I told brother Hanook that three years ago I had a ticket to go to Pakistan, but was refused a visa by the Pakistan embassy in Bangkok. I sincerely appreciated the head of the visa department, as he spent half a hour explaining to me how the situation had changed inside that country since I was there four years ago. Brother Hanook said he would go to the embassy in Bangkok to see what he could do to get that untangled.
He said the situation inside Pakistan varies from area to area. In the northwest, the Taliban owns that area, and it is extremely dangerous. Karachi is dangerous. But he said, in his area, of Punjab, the situation is quiet stable; and they are having many open air meetings. He told me that it was quite safe; but then said that 70 Christian homes had been burned, and 7 Christians killed. He has serious scars on his body that he got when he was captured by a Taliban mob, and tortured. He told me that he has four pastors working with him, but complained that they were too timid. People in the main cities are unresponsive, but he said that there was amazing hunger in the smaller villages. He previously told me that they have seen 500 come to Christ in the past year. If that is accurate, that would be a great incentive to join in the harvest.
One thing is certain,I firmly believe that the time has come for Islam. Traditionally, Islam has been the greatest resistance to the Gospel of any force in history. Until recent years the mission statics have been one life has produced one life. That is, for every missionary who went to a Muslim country, and devoted his life to evangelism, at the end of his life he could only point to one convert. In 1965 Harry Stam, who was probably worlds leading authority on foreign missions, told me that in Kuwait the CLC had a small meeting in the back of their book store with about a dozen Christians. To the best of his knowledge, that was the largest Christian meeting in the Muslim world. Today thousands are coming to Christ. I fanatically believe the Back to Jerusalem movement by the Chinese church is going to make enormous headway in the 10-40 window, and I would expect a significant harvest in Pakistan. Lord, Thy Kingdom come and Thy will be done – in Pakistan.
In my daily devotions the Lord has been speaking to me about the Blood of Christ.
Andrew Murray wrote a book of 253 pages on the Blood of Christ. I wondered how he could wrote such a lengthy thesis on that subject, but now I am convinced it is far too short. At just a cursory glance there are at least three persons and two places that have been majorly affected and altered by the Blood of Christ.
In our simple self-centered view, about the only thing we talk about is what the Blood of Christ does for us, the sinner. We all know it is by the Blood that we are saved. Without the Blood of Christ there would be no salvation. This was vividly demonstrated that night in Egypt where there was no salvation in any house where the blood of the lamb was not posted on the door post.
But far more than what the Blood of Christ has done for us, I am beginning to see what the Blood has done for God. In any rape case there are two parties involved – the perpetrator and the victim. It is true that the villain is guilty, but it is the victim who has been hurt the worst. In our case the guilt of sin is on us. We are the ones who need to be cleansed and forgiven. But it is God who has been sinned against. He is the one who has been injured. Correy ten Boon tells the story of an incident that happened to her after the war when she was in Germany preaching the Gospel. One night after a meeting, one of the most vile, wicked, guards in her prison came up to her with a big smile and cheerfully stuck out his hand saying, “Isn't the Blood of Jesus wonderful, sister.” In a flash her mind went back to the scenes of those horrible atrocities she saw that man commit in prison, and thought, “Is is so simple?” After all those unspeakable things this man has done, can he be absolved by simply saying, “I believe in Jesus.” Then the Holy Spirit took her back to her own experience, and the sin she had been forgiven of. True, her sins were feathers compared to the dump truck weight of his sins, but forgiveness was the same. When she stuck out her hand to greet this hated guard, the Holy Spirit filled her heart with love. The guard was the one who committed the crimes, but what the Blood of Christ did for Correy ten Boon in enabling her to forgive him was even more significant than what it did for him. I never realized what the Blood of Christ has done for God who was the one injured. This has enabled Him to forgive us.
In a vague way we know that the Blood of Jesus is a major force in dealing with the devil, but until recently I never knew how totally it finished him. Many years ago I asked Joe Carroll if the devil still had access to the Throne of God. He didn't know. I have never been able to resolve that question in my own mind. We know from Job 1 and 2 that the devil had access to the Throne. From Luke 22:31, we see that satan still had access to God the night before the Crucifixion to seek permission to sift Peter. Does he still have access today? The answer is “no”. Rev. 12 shows us the scene of the war in heaven and verse 10 says, “NOW … is the accuser … cast down.” If we accept that verse as a decisive moment, it would appear that this came when Jesus shed His Blood. Jesus shed some more light on it when He said, “I saw satan fall like lightning out of heaven” (Lk. 10:18) and then at the Last Supper Jesus added, “NOW is the prince of this world cast out” (Jn. 12:31). The devil reigned, and had full authority, from the Garden to the Cross, but when Jesus shed His Blood, the devil was finished.
I never thought of heaven needing to be cleansed, but the rite in the OT Tabernacle certainly demonstrated this. The Tabernacle was God's house, not man's. And it was by the blood that everything in the Tabernacle, and the Tabernacle itself, had to be cleansed by the shed blood. The Tabernacle, as well as the sinner, had to be cleansed by the blood. Exodus and Leviticus is full of this. The blood was basic to everything that happened in the Tabernacle, even the cleansing of the Mercy Seat once a year. The record of sin was kept in heaven – not on earth. It was the records that needed to be destroyed. It is by the Blood of Jesus that has washed away all trace of sin. Dr. Jack Green, of the Baptist church, had a serious car accident last week. A truck broad-sided his little car. I saw the car sitting in his yard yesterday. It was completely smashed. As long as that car is there, the evidence of that accident remains. As long as the records of sin were kept it is heaven, that needed to be cleansed. But the Blood of the Lamb has cleansed heaven as well as it has cleansed us.
I might be wrong in my terminology, but if we accept hell as the home base of the devil, as heaven is the home of God, then I believe the Blood of Christ has enormous impact on hell as well as heaven. I say this on the basis that the Blood of Christ has totally stripped the devil of any authority he had over God's people. When Jesus shed His blood He nailed a sign on the door to hell saying “Out of Business”. Not only was satan cast out of heaven, but every demon in his entourage of hell was finished when the Blood of Jesus was shed. Hell has no more authority over us; Jesus closed it down.
If Andrew Murray wrote a 253 page book on this subject there is no way I can cover it in one letter. I haven't begun to mention what I feel is the most important topic. Maybe next week I can get into that more. But this has to do with drinking the Blood. This is a subject that has bewildered me for years, and it is only now that I am beginning to gain a little understanding. Jesus said “Unless we eat His flesh and drink His Blood we have no life in us” (Jn. 6:55). What in the world is He talking about?
There are two aspects of this that I feel are important. We know that water has two functions – external and internal. Externally we use water to wash our bodies. This world would be a horribly smelly place if we didn't have water to cleanse ourselves. Water is very importantly externally. But it is far more important to take it internally for our life. Water is important to keep us clean, but without it internally, we could have no life at all. The Blood of Jesus has the same function. Externally, we need the Blood of Christ to cleanse us from our sin. But far more than external cleansing, we need the Blood internally for life. The key to this is the well known truth that “the life is in the Blood” (Lev. 17:14). Medical science, as well as the Bible, has established this fact. The life of any living creature is in the blood. And the life of Jesus is in His Blood. When we take communion, our digestive system breaks down the wine and bread until it literally winds up in our blood stream as nourishment to maintain our life. Without food and drink life would be impossible. Jesus said, “My flesh is food and My Blood is drink” (Jn. 6:55). Our spiritual life functions the same way as our physical life, and is is totally dependent on this. But that may be next week.
Jesus is coming soon. Thank God for what He is doing in Pakistan. Thank God for what He is doing in each of us. Thank God for Jesus and His wonderful Blood.
See you next week,
bill
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